skip to main content

30 adolescents abducted in northeast Nigeria

Boko Haram has been waging a bloody insurgency since 2009
Boko Haram has been waging a bloody insurgency since 2009

Around 30 adolescents, some of them girls aged as young as 11, have been abducted in northeast Nigeria over the weekend.

The kidnapping is suspected to be by Boko Haram rebels.

The rebels grabbed young people, boys and girls, from the Mafa village around 50km east of Maiduguri, the capital of Borno state.

Seventeen people were also killed in recent days in a Boko Haram attack on the nearby village of Ndongo.

Boko Haram, has been waging a bloody insurgency since 2009, has been responsible for waves of attacks and abductions. 

In April, the Islamist rebel group kidnapped more than 200 schoolgirls from Chibok in northeast Nigeria, triggering an international outcry.

Kidnapping young women and girls, as well as forcibly conscripting young men and boys to fight for Boko Haram, is a well-established tactic by the militants.

Some estimates put the number of women held by the group in the high hundreds.

Most are believed to be forced into marriages with rebels.

Earlier this month, the Nigerian government and army announced an accord with Boko Haram, whose insurgency has left more than 10,000 dead over the past five years. 

But on the ground in north Nigeria the truce has not taken hold as attacks have continued.

The reported retaking of Abadam, near lake Chad, from Boko Haram fighters could not be immediately confirmed by the Nigerian army.